Mosaic tilesMosaic wall and floor tiles.
These attractive type of tiles, come in different types of materials. These can be made of ceramics, coloured glass, smalti, marble, granite, porcelain, travertine and even made of mirrors amongst others. Most of these are suitable for both walls, floors and other surfaces such worktop / countertop and even ceilings applications. Mosaic tiles are also great for adding a splash of art and design to main tiling by using them as border tiles or a mural; add a vertical or horizontal band by sectioning a mosaic sheet in 3 or 4 rows or according to your inspiration or to planning necessity. In fact, mosaics can sometimes clean up a tiling design by allowing the craftsman to achieve "full tile to full tile", a term that us tilers use to describe a tiling job without the use of cut tiles. This will need careful planning which can be aided by the use of a tile layout software. Preparing tile area for mosaic work.
In order to achieve good aesthetics, it is important that the area to be tiled is not only flat but also level, plumb and its angles square, as the tiles are so small, any imperfection will show up on the final tiling. An example of this; let's assume that a wall internal or external corner is out of plumb by 20 mm from top to bottom and the mosaic tiles are 20 mm x 20 mm. An average ceiling height is 2.3 m. At middle height, the tile will half its original size, only half of it will be visible. There will be over 100 mosaic tiles to be removed off the mesh backing, cut and then individually installed. Apart from the poor aesthetics, this will take a considerable time to do. This is one of the main reasons why mosaic work is generally more costly than standard tiling. Installing Mosaics.
When installing mosaics, particular attention should be applied on the surface preparation as any voids and bulges will detract the aesthetics and lines may appear bent and and/or out of level. There is another reason for having a flatter surface prior to tiling, this is to avoid using more tile adhesive that it's recommended by the tile adhesive manufactures. You can read more about adhesives here. In order to avoid slippage on walls, Mosaic tiles sheets need to be installed with the minimum allowed amount or else by the time you will install another sheet, the first one would have slipped down from its original position. Another reason for not using too much adhesive it's to maintain a clean tile joint. if the tile joint gets filled with tile adhesive then you must ensure to rake it off and clean it before it sets. Always use similar colour adhesive to mach the grouting. Find more about grouting here. Directionality.
Mosaic tiles sheets usually have either a backing of paper or some sort of plastic mesh. Looking at the mesh, the installer will very likely find a mark that can show directionality to the tiling. This will aid easier installation. Some mosaic sheets are rectangular rather than square by having one row of tiles less. This gives some directionality. I say some because there might be other factors that can give directionality, such as a pattern in the individual tiles that will create a design across multiple sheets. Backing.
What you should know is that there are two types of paper that can be found on the mosaic sheets; paper mesh and full paper sheet.
If the paper that covers most of the mosaics pieces is a full sheet (not perforated), then these types of mosaics are likely to be installed with the paper facing upwards. The adhesive will have full contact with the tiles. The paper is usually wetted after tiles have provisionally set and easily pealed off. The mesh type will have much less adhesive contact with the tiles. The amount varies with different makes. Mosaic sheets storage.
It is very important to store all mosaic sheets in a dry environment as some humidity can de-bond the backing off the tiles, offsetting and distorting their position on the sheets. If this happens then it will be very difficult to install these and in many cases they will need to be discarded or the installer will have to painstakingly fit each mosaic, one by one. Not cost effective. Alignment.
Even the best mosaic manufacturer will ship mosaic sheets which will have some miss aligned tiles. Yes even the robots can get it wrong! Usually individual mosaics tiles are assembled inside grid templates and then the backing mesh is glued on the tiles. Undoubtedly some tiles do not sit square on the grid. This is generally more likely to be found on the cheaper end or second quality.
What this usually means is that it is sometimes necessary to adjust or remove some sections of the sheet with the use of a "Stanley knife" or craft knife, by slicing through the affected section. Best to carefully check each sheet of mosaics before gluing it into place. A good aid for installing mosaics is the use of laser levels.
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